Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks

Details Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks

2008-06-11

arxiv.org/abs/0806.1872v1

Biology

Quantitative Biology

Populations and Evolution

21 pages, 8 figures

Scientific paper

We study the effects of switching social contacts as a strategy to control epidemic outbreaks. Connections between susceptible and infective individuals can be broken by either individual, and then reconnected to a randomly chosen member of the population. It is assumed that the reconnecting individual has no previous information on the epidemiological condition of the new contact. We show that reconnection can completely suppress the disease, both by continuous and discontinuous transitions between the endemic and the infection-free states. For diseases with an asymptomatic phase, we analyze the conditions for the suppression of the disease, and show that, even when these conditions are not met, the increase of the endemic infection level is usually rather small. We conclude that, within some simple epidemiological models, contact switching is a quite robust and effective control strategy. This suggests that it may also be an efficient method in more complex situations.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Contact switching as a control strategy for epidemic outbreaks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-265841